Filling In
by Tmae3114
Summary: Ash fills in for the Hero of Falconreach as snugglegram deliverer while she's sick. It seemed like a good idea at the time... Pre-time skip


**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonfable. That right goes to Artix** **Entertainment.**

* * *

"Hey? You in here?" Ash asked, peering the through the door. The room was pitch black, with the exception of the shaft of light from aforementioned open door. It was just enough to make out the form on the bed.

"No. Go 'way," she muttered, before rolling over and pulling the covers over her head.

"Serenity said you were sick," he said, entering the room. A muffled groan from the bed was his answer.

"'S just a cold, she's over-reacting," came a mumble, rapidly followed by a sneeze that actually _lifted_ the covers for a while.

"Doesn't look like it," he answered.

"I _know_, but I can't be si...si..." a large sneeze interrupted her protest mid-word "_sick._ Not now, 'specially not _now,_"

"Sick is sick. But what's so special about today?" he asked. A hand moved out from under the bed covers sluggishly, followed by the rest of the arm, and pointed to the cork board hanging on a wall. The dark of the room made actually seeing what was on it impossible, so he walked across the room and pulled open the curtains. Yes, Ash most definitely walked across the pitch black room with no mishaps _whatsoever._ He _did not_ stub his toe four times and walk into a wall. Honestly, _he didn't._

There was a hiss of protest that one could call vampiric from the bed when morning sunlight flooded the room but at the very least he could see the corkboard now.

It was covered in notes (Both the sticky and pinned-up-paper kind) and drawings and various other things. Most people would have called the jumbled order of it all, well, _unorganised_ but Ash knew his friend well enough to know that there was actually a pattern of some sort in there and she could probably navigate the mess with ease to find what she was looking for.

"Which part am I meant to be looking at?" he asked.

"Bottom left," she replied. Well, it actually sounded more like 'Mmffmm mmfft,' but he took that as 'bottom left'.  
The bottom left of the cork board had a bunch of heart shaped cards all over it, along with drawings of a bunch of monsters that looked very..._pink._ A band of red paper was pinned in the middle, with 'Hero's Heart Day' written on it in large, black letters.

"Oh, right!" he exclaimed, slapping a palm to his forehead. "It's almost Hero's Heart Day! And you have to do deliveries, but you can't do that if you're ill!"  
The top of her head peeked out from under the covers and glared at him; the glare was rather similar to a frogadile's and Ash suppressed a shudder.  
"So, if you're ill and can't do the deliveries...who will?" he wondered, receiving another glare.  
"You don't know, right, that's why you're worried,"

A few moments passed in silence before an idea occurred to him.

"Hey! I could cover for you if you want!" he exclaimed. She gave him a smile.

"Thanks," she replied. She lifted an arm sluggishly and pointed to her desk.

"Second drawer on the left, instructions," she said, before pulling the covers over her head again.  
"'N' c'n you close th' curtains on your way out? Too bright,"

Ash opened the drawer and pulled out a surprisingly thick folder labeled 'Hero's Heart Day'.

"I hope you feel better soon," he told her, before turning to go out the door.

"Curtains," she repeated. Rolling his eyes, Ash turned and walked back through the room to shut the curtains, plunging the room back into darkness.

The next few minutes were filled with barely bitten back exclamations of pain from the young boy as he attempted to navigate his way out in the dark.

* * *

Ash tightened his grip on his sword slightly and gulped as he looked at the forest in front of him. The first thing he'd found inside the folder was a list of instructions on how to find Big Daddy. A list of instructions that went:

1. Consider if sure about this

2. Find Artix

3. Get directions from Artix

And that list had been followed by a map to the locations where he was most likely to be found.  
All of them were in Doomwood. Of course.

So now he was standing outside and trying to build up the courage to go in.

"Okay Ash, deep breaths," he reminded himself.  
"It's not that bad. Just a forest. A forest full of lots of undead monsters and the entrance to the city of the necromancers. But that's okay, you can beat them,"

He gulped again, tightened his grip more and took a few hesitant steps forwards, before deciding to just get it over with and walking into the forest.  
A few minutes in a skull went flying over his head, and a very triumphant 'Aha!' could be heard. Evidently, Artix was nearby. Ash kept walking, following the trail of bones and severed zombie limbs, finding the paladin just in time to see him land the finishing blow on another zombie.

"Hey Ash!" Artix said, grinning.  
"What brings you to Doomwood?"

"Uh, it's almost Hero's Heart Day and I'm filling in for-" he started, but Artix cut him off.

"Say no more, you need directions!" he said, still smiling.  
"This way to the Forest of Infinite Terror!"

Ash's eyes widened.  
"W...wait, _Forest of Infinite Terror!?_" he squeaked.

"It's not nearly as nasty as the name suggests. Come on!" Artix replied, before grabbing his arm and practically dragging the young boy through the forest, heedless to said boy's protests.

* * *

"_This_ is the Forest of Infinite Terror?" he asked in disbelief, staring at the very, very pink trees with hearts hanging from them; he didn't even know that tree _could_ be pink!

"Yep! Good luck in there!" Artix responded.

"Wait...good luck? Why would I need-" Ash stopped as he turned around and saw that Artix was already gone "Aaand...he's not here. I swear, he's had to have had _some_ training from Shadow of the Wind to be able to disappear so quickly and quietly in that armour!"

He sighed, before turning and looking at the Forest of Infinite Fear.

"Well, here goes nothing..."

* * *

Five minutes later saw him stumbling into Big Daddy's clearing covered in monster slime. He didn't care _what_ people said those things were called; they were _Slimes_ not 'Globs of Love' ('Glob of loves'? What was the correct plural for monsters with names that were more than one word?).

The cherub looked up.  
"Ah, another customer? Here to send a snugglegram? My apologies, but our deliveries are a bit delayed at the moment as our usual deliverer hasn't arrived yet,"

"Actually, that's why I'm here. I offered to fill in for her," Ash replied, attempting to wipe some of the pink goop off his arm.

"Fill in? Something wrong with her?" Big Daddy asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah, she's ill, I offered to come for her,"

"Okay then!" Big Daddy said, standing up on his box.  
"We're rather behind, so you're going to have to work _extra_ hard to make up for lost time! First off, we're going to have to get you measured for a uniform; the usual one isn't going to fit you. And if I can recommend, I think you should wash, you're covered in slime,"

The cherub jumped down off his box and marched off to an area in the clearing, leaving Ash to groan.

Obviously, this wouldn't be as easy as he had hoped.

* * *

Ash felt ridiculous.

The monsters in this place were bad enough, 'Love Bug's and 'Kissing Bugs' and the like, but it turned out that all deliveries had to be done in uniform. Now normally, this wouldn't be a problem, except for the simple fact of what this uniform _was._

It was a bear suit.  
With a _bow._ A _bright pink bow.  
_And he wasn't allowed to use normal weapons; he had to use the one that came with the uniform. _Shaped like a heart._

He had to run around a forest, delivering love letters, and flowers and chocolates, in a white bear suit with a bright pink bow using a weapon shaped like a heart with an arrow through it and he had to _sing_ while he did it.

He was pretty sure his face was red enough to match the weapon.

He cleared his throat nervously.

"Uh, snugglegram delivery,"

The girl looked up.

"Um..." he took a deep breath, before steeling himself, and starting the song.

"Open your mind, and open your heart..."

He was never filling in for her ever again.

_Ever._

* * *

**So...that was my attempt at humour. CHances are, not very good. In my opinion at least. This kinda got away from me actually, all I meant to do was write a short and sweet one shot but wel, this happened.**

**Happy Hero's Heart Day everybody!**


End file.
